IOHANNES IEWEL S. T. D. Episcopus Sarisburiensis THE APOLOGY OF THE Church of England AND An Epistle to one Seignior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman Concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin By the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Sarisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The LIFE of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE ensuing Discourses are all designed for the Good and Service of the Religion by Law established and two of them are so excellently adapted to that end by their Author that if I have not spoiled them by an ill version there can be no doubt made but they will be of great use Of the Third I beg leave to give somewhat a larger Account because I am a little more concerned in it THE Life I have collected from Mr. Humfrey's who wrote Bishop Jewel's Life at large in Quarto 2. The English Life put before his Works which was pen'd about the Year 1609. 3. Mr. Fuller's Church History 4. Dr. Heylyn's Ecclesia Anglicana restaurata and others who wrote any thing that related to those times and fell into my hands in that short time I had to finish it in Mr. Humfrey's alone would have been sufficient if he had observed an exact Method in Writing this Life or been altogether free from Affections But tho he tell us Bishop Jewel kept a Diary of his Life and that he had assistance from Dr. Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich Aegidius Lawrence Mr. John Jewel the Bishops Brother and one Mr. John Garbrande and others and Printed his Piece in the Year 1573. Which was not much above two years after the Death of Bishop Jewel yet he has not observed any exact order or method in the History of his Life and he no where tells us in what Year he was made a Fellow or received Orders nor from whom only he tells us Mr. Harding took his Orders at the same time Nor has he acquainted us when Mr. Harding published his first or second Antapologies nor when the Bishop went to Padua nor how long he staid there nor who were his Partners in his Visitation for the Queen Nor has he marked almost any of the principal Actions of his Life when they were done and tho he mentions a Sermon at Paul's Cross and a Conference with the Dissenters not long before his death yet he neither tells us the time or occasion of either of them but instead of these runs out into Discourses against Harding and others of that Perswasion which were nothing or very little to his purpose THE English Life before his Works is only an Extract out of Mr. Humfrey's Latin Work but yet was helpful to me in many Particulars being done by a wise Man and who doth not seem to have been biassed as the former was who makes it his business to represent both the Church of England and Bishop Jewel as wonderous Friends to the Churches of Switzerland that is to the Calvinists because he Good Man was one himself tho not so mad as those that followed and upon this very account I do suspect he has left out many things that he might have related and would have afforded great light to the Church History of those times and especially to Bishop Jewel's Life Fuller is barren in his Relations of those times the Bishop lived after his Consecration tho he afforded me some good helps Dr. Burnett has continued his History but a little way in Queen Elizabeths time and Dr. Heylyn ended his with the beginning of the Year 1566. which was about Five Years before the death of Bishop Jewel and I have neither time nor leisure nor Interest to search the Records of those times and compare the Editions of Books and other things by which this Life might have been put into a better Method as to the timing of things And besides all this it were perhaps indecent to put a long Life before two such small Tractates as I am to entertain my Reader with but yet I hope the Life such as it is will give some light to the Discourses and raise a venerable Idea of this good Bishop in the Readers mind which were the things I chiefly aimed at in the Writing of it As to the Pieces the first of these the Apology was written in Latin in the beginning of the Year 1562. or the latter end of the foregoing Year and was occasioned by Pope Pius the Fourth his calling the Council of Trent and sending his Nuncio Martiningo to invite the Queen to it and the interposition of most of the greatest Princes of Christendom who wrote to the Queen to entertain the Nuncio and submit to the Council Whereupon it was thought but reasonable to give the World an account of what we had done in the preceding Parliament and the reasons of it and to retort the many Accusations brought against our Church by the Papists And therefore it was but reasonable that it should be in Latin that being the most common Language and understood by the Learned Men of all Nations and accordingly it found entertainment in all places and was read in them Which is more perhaps than can be said of any other Book written for our Church since the Reformation Mr. Harding had a great Quarrel against it because it was not inscribed neither to the Pope nor to the Council But there being no reason to make them our Judges and they having no right to claim that Authority over us it had been a great oversight to have made any such Inscription which would have been a kind of making them what they had neither right nor reason to expect to be and from whom we could expect no Justice The Natives had without doubt a great desire to see what was in this Book which then made so great a noise in the World and the Learned Men being then otherwise imployed a Lady who was one of the most Learned of the Age undertook that task and made a very Faithful and perhaps Elegant Version of it for the time when it was made She was then Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England second Daughter to Sir Anthony Cooke Knight one of the Tutors to King Edward the Sixth who being an excellent Scholar had taken care to improve his Five Daughters so much in Learning that they became the Wonders of the Age and were sought in Marriage by great Men more for their natural and acquired Endowments and Beauty than for their Portions tho they did not want that neither Mildred the eldest married William Cecil Lord Treasurer of England Anne the second was this Lady Bacon Katherine the third married Sir Henry Killigrew Elizabeth the fourth married Sir Thomas Hobby the fifth whose name is lost married Sir Ralph Rowlet all three Knights
Parents and Masters which he took so well that at the entrance of the Thirteenth year of his Age about the Feast of St. James he was admitted in Merton Colledge in Oxon under one Mr. Peter Burrey a Man neither of any great Learning nor much addicted to the Reformation which then in the Reign of Henry the Eighth went on but slowly and with much irregularity in its Motions But we are yet beholding to his first Tutor for this that he committed this Jewel to Mr. John Parkhurst a Fellow of the same Colledge and afterwards first Minister of Cleave and then Bishop of Norwich who was a Man both of more Learning and of a better Faith and prudently instilled together with his other Learning those excellent Principles into this Young Gentleman which afterwards made him the Darling and Wonder of his Age. DURING his continuance in this Colledge a Plague happening in Oxon he removed to a place called Croxham where being lodged in a low Room and studying hard in the night he got a lameness by a Cold which attended him to his Grave having spent almost four years in this Colledge the 19 th of August Anno Domini 1539. the One and thirtieth of Henry the Eighth in the Seventeenth year of his Age he was by the Procurement of one Mr. Slater and Mr. Burrey and Mr. Parkhurst his two Tutors removed into Corpus Christi Colledge in the same University where I suppose he met with something of an encouragement but it is much more certain he met with Envy from his Equals who often suppressed his ingenious Exercises and read others that were more like their own THE twentieth day of October in the folowing year he took his first Degree of Batchelor of Arts with a great and general Applause when he prosecuted his Studies with more vigor than before beginning them at four in the Morning and continuing them till ten and night so that he seemed to need some body to put him in mind of eating BEING now attained to a great Reputation for Learning he began to instruct other and amongst and rest Anthony Parkhurst was committed to his care by Mr. John Parkhurst his Tuto which was a great Argument of his great Worth and Industry BEING thus imployed he was chosen Reader of Humanity and Rhetorick of his own Colledge and he managed this place seven years with great Applause and Honor. His Example taught more than any Precepts could for he was a great admirer of Horace and Cicero and read all Erasmus his Works and imitated them too for it was his custom to write something every day and it was his common saying that men acquired Learning more by a frequent exercising their Pens than by reading many Books He affected ever rather to express himself fluently neatly and with great weight of Argument and strength of Reason than in hunting after the Flowers of Rhetorick and the Cadences of Words tho he understood them no man better and wrote a Dialogue in which he comprehended the sum of the Art of Rhetorick THE ninth of February 1544. he commenced Master of Arts the Charge of it being born by his good Tutor Mr. Parkhurst who had then the Rich Rectory of Cleve in the Diocess of Glocester which is of better value than some of our smaller Bishopricks Nor was this the only instance wherein he did partake of this good mans Bounty for he was wont twice or thrice in a year to invite him to his House and not dismiss him without Presents Money and other things that were necessary for the carrying on his Studies And one time above the rest coming into his Chamber in the Morning when he was to go back to the University he seised upon his and his Companions Purses saying What Money I wonder have these miserable Beggarly Oxfordians And finding them pittifully lean and empty stuffed them With Money till they became both fat and weighty EDWARD the Sixth succeeding his Father the 28 th of January 1546. the Reformation went on more regularly and swiftly and Peter Martyr being by that Prince called out of Germany and made Professor of Divinity at Oxon Mr. Jewel was one of his most constant hearers and by the help of Characters which he had invented for his own use took all his Lectures almost as perfectly as he spoke them About this time one Dr. Richard Smith Predecessor to Peter Martyr in that Chair at Oxon who was more a Sophister than a Divine made an insult upon Peter Martyr and interrupted him publickly and unexpectedly in his Lecture the German was not to be baffled by a surprize but extempore recollected his Lecture and defended it with a great presence of mind the two Parties in the Schools being just upon the point of a Tumult the Protestants for the present Professor and the Papists for the old one Peter Martyr nettled with this affront challenged Smith to dispute with him publickly and appointed him a day But Smith fearing to be called in question for this uproar fled before the time to St. Andrews in Scotland But then Tresham and Chadsy two Popish Doctors and one Morgan entered the Lists against Peter Martyr and there was a very sharp but regular Dispute betwixt them concerning the Lords-Supper And Mr. Jewel having then a large share in Peter Martyrs affections was by him appointed to take the whole Disputation in Writing which was printed in the year 1649. for the regulating this Disputation the Council sent to Oxon Henry Bishop of Lincoln Dr. R. Cox Chancellor of that University Dr. Simon Haines Richard Morison Esqe and Dr. Christopher Nevison Commissioners and Moderators In the year 1551. Mr. Jewel took his Degree of Bachelor of Divinity whon he preached an excellent Latin Sermon which is extant almost perfect taking for his Text the words of St. Peter Ep. 1. cap. 4. v. 11. If any man speak Let him speak as the Oracles of God c. Upon which words he raised such excellent Doctrines and made such wise and holy Reflections in so pure and elegant a stile as satisfied all the World of his great Ability and Deserts In the same time Mr. Jewel took a small Living near Oxon called Sunningwell more out of a desire to do good than for the Sallary which was but small whither he went once a Fortnight on Foot tho he was lame and it was troublesome to him to walk and at the same time preached frequently both privately in his own Colledge and publickly in the University BESIDES his old Friend Mr. Parkhurst amongst others one Mr. Curtop a Fellow of the same Colledge afterwards Canon of Christ-Church allowed him Forty shillings a year which was a considerable sum in those days and one Mr. Chambers who was entrusted with distributing the Charity of some Londoners to the Poor Scholars of Oxon allowed Mr. Jewel out of it six pound a year for Books EDWARD the Sixth dying the sixth of July Anno Domini 1553. and
elegantly penned and so elaborately digested that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that Party durst reply upon him Which Letter the Reader will find in this small piece new translated But this was written some time after the Apology was Printed in England IN the year following Bishop Jewel put out The Apology of the Church of England in Latin which tho written by him was published by the Queens Authority and with the advice of some of the Bishops as the Publick Confession of the Catholick and Christian Faith of the Church of England c. and to give an account of the reasons of our departure from the See of Rome and as an answer to those Calumnies that were then raised against the English Church and Nation for not submitting to the pretended General Council of Trent then sitting SO that it is not to be esteemed as the private work of a single Bishop but as a publick Declaration of that Church whose name it bears Mr. Humfrey seems in this place to confound this and the Epistle together as if they had been written at the same time which it is apparent they were not THIS Apology being published during the very time of the last meeting of the Council of Trent was read there and seriously considered and great threats made that it should be answered and accordingly two Learned Bishops one a Spaniard and the other an Italian undertook that task but neither of them did any thing in it BUT in the mean time the Book spread into all the Countries in Europe and was much applauded in France Flanders Germany Spain Poland Hungary Denmark Sweden and Scotland and found at least a passage into Italy Naples and Rome it self and was soon after translated into the German Italian French Spanish Dutch and last into the Greek Tongue in so great esteem this Book was abroad and at home it was translated into English by the Lady Bacon Wife to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England IT very well deserves the Character Mr. Humfrey has given of it whose words are these It is so drawn that the first part of it is an Illustration â—and as it were a Paraphrase of the Twelve Articles of the Christian Faith or Creed the second is a short and solid Confutation of whatever is objected against the Church if the Order be considered nothing can be better distributed if the Perspicuity nothing can be fuller of Light if the Stile nothing more terse if the words nothing more splendid if the Arguments nothing stronger THE good Bishop was most encouraged to publish this Apology by Peter Martyr as appears by Martyr's Letter of the 24 th of August with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time in Exile But Martyr only lived to see the Book which he so much longed for dying at Zurick on the twelfth day of November following after he had paid his thanks for and expressed his value of this piece in a Letter which is subjoyned to this Book in all the following Prints And Mr. Camden also in his Annals expresly saith this Apology was printed first in the year 1562. In the year 1564. Mr. Harding put out a pretended Answer to Bishop Jewel's famous Challenge at Paul's Cross mentioned above to which in the year following the Bishop made a very learned Reply the Epistle before which bears date at London the 27 th of October of that year the Bishop is said to have spent two years in that Piece The same year the University of Oxon gave him tho absent the degree of Doctor of Divinity and certainly he well deserved to have that extraordinary respect and Honour shewn him who was so eminently imployed then in the Service and defence of the Church HE had no sooner brought this to a Conclusion but Harding was again upon him and put out an Antapology or answer to his Apology for the Church of England A Defence of which the Bishop forthwith began which he finished as appears by his Epistle to Mr. Harding at the end of it the 27 th of October 1567. THE next year after Mr. Harding put out another piece which he entitled A detection of sundry foul Errors c. which was a cavilling reply to some passages in his defence of the Apology which not seeming to deserve an answer by it self he answered rather by a Preface to a new Impression of his former Defence which he finished the eleventh of December 1569. and dedicated his Works to the Queen Harding having told the World that she was offended with Bishop Jewel for thus troubling the World THE same year Pope Pius the Fourth having published a Bull of Excommunication and Deprivation against the Queen Bishop Jewel undertook the defence of his Soveraign and wrote a learned Examination and Confutation of that Bull which was published by John Garbrand an intimate acquaintance of his together with a short Treatise of the Holy Scriptures both which as he informs us were delivered by the Bishop in his Cathedral Church in the year 1570. BESIDES these he writ several other large pieces as 1. a Paraphrastical Interpretation of the Epistles and Gospels throughout the whole year 2ly Diverse Treatises of the Sacraments and Exhortations to the Readers 3ly Expositions of the Lords Prayer the Creed and Ten Commandments And also 4ly An Exposition upon the Epistle to the Galatians the first of St. Peter and both the Epistles to the Thessalonians which I suppose were his Sermons for he was of opinion that it was a better way of teaching to go through with a Book than to take here and there a Text and that it gave the People a more clear and lasting knowledge IN the beginning of the next year was a Parliament and consequently a Convocation when Tho. Cartwright and others of that Faction having alarmed the Church by their Oppositions to the established Religion it was thought fit to obviate their bold attempts and thereupon command was given by the Arch-bishop That all such of the lower House of Convocation who had not formerly subscribed unto the Articles of Religion agreed upon Anno 1562. should subscribe them now or on their absolute refusal or delay be expelled the House Which occasioned a general and personal Subscription of those Articles And it was also farther ordered That the Book of Articles so approved should be put into Print by the appointment of the Right Reverand Doctor John Jewel then Bishop of Sarum which shews he was there and in great esteem IT was in some part of this year also that he had his Conference and preached his last Sermon at Paul's Cross about the Ceremonies and State of the Church which he mentioned on his Death-bed But I cannot fix the precise time of either of them or give any further account with whom that Conference was But however this Holy man sought nothing but the Peace and Welfare of the Church
by these gentle and mild ways of Correption the Dissenters of those times treated him for it with as little respect as Mr. Harding and his Confraternity had before as Bishop Whitgift assures us his words are these They the Dissenters will not stick saith he in commending themselves to deface all others yea even that notable JEWEL whose both Labour and Learning they do envy and amongst themselves deprave as I have heard with mine own ears and a number more besides For further proof whereof I do refer you to the report that by this faction was spread of him after his last Sermon at Paul's Cross because he did confirm the Doctrine before preached by a famous and learned man touching obedience to the Prince and Laws It was strange saith he to me to hear so notable a Bishop so learned a Man so stout a Champion of true Religion so painful a Prelate so ungratefully and spitefully used by a sort of wavering wicked and wretched Tongues but it is their manner be you never so welll learned never so painful so zealâ—us so vertuous all is nothing with them but they will deprave you rail on you back-bite you invent lyes of you and spread false rumours as though you were the vilest Persons in the whole earth THUS writes that venerable Arch-bishop in his Defence of the Answer to the Admonition p. 423. upon occasion of a Paper written also about this time by Bishop Jewel upon certain frivolous Objections against the Government of the Church of England made by Thomas Cart wright which the Bishop had confuted and Cartwright writing against him Whitgift defended them in this place and by the by shews how ill the good Bishop was treated for his last Sermon at Paul's Cross by this generation of Vipers which extorted from him that Protestation he made on his Death-bed of which I shall give an account hereafter BEING naturally of a spare and thin Body and thus restlesly trashing it out with reading writing preaching and travelling he hastened his death which happened before he was full fifty years of Age of which he had a strange Perception a considerable time before it happened and wrote of it to several of his Friends but would by no means be perswaded to abate any thing of his former excessive Labours saying A Bishop should die preaching THO he ever governed his Diocess with great diligence yet perceiving his death approaching he began a new and more severe Visitation of it correcting the Vices of the Clergy and Laity more sharply injoyning them in some places tasks of Holy Tracts to be learned by heart conferring Orders more carefully and preaching oftener HAVING promised to preach at Lacock in Wiltshire a Gentleman who met him going thither observing him to be very ill by his looks advised him to return home assuring him it was better the People should want one Sermon than to be altogether deprived of such a Preacher But he would not be perswaded but went thither and preached his last Sermon out of the fifth to the Galat. Walk in the Spirit c. which he did not finish without great labour and difficulty THE Saturday following being the 22d of September 1571. he piously and devoutly rendered up his Soul into the Hands of God having first made a very devout and Christian Exhortation to those that were about him and expressing much dislike of one of his Servants who prayed for his Recovery He died at Monketon farly when he had been a Bishop almost twelve years and was buried almost in the middle of the Quire of his Cathedral Church and Aegidius Lawrence preached his Funeral Sermon He was extreamly bewailed by all men and a great number of Latin Greek and Hebrew Verses were made on this occasion by learned men which are collected and printed by Mr. Lawrence Humfrey Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxon in the end of his Life written in Latin by the order of that University nor has his name been since mentioned by any Man without such Elogies and Commendations as befitted so great so good so learned and laborious a Prelate HAVING thus brought him to his Grave my Reader may be pleased to permit me to collect some particular things which could not so well be inserted into the History of his Life without breaking the thread of it HE had naturally a very strong Memory which he had strangely improved by Art Mr. Humfrey gives several Examples of this but I will instance in two only John Hooper Bisop of Glocester who was burnt in the Reign of Queen Mary once to try him writ about forty Welsn and Irish words Mr. Jewel going a little while aside and recollecting them in his Memory and reading them twice or thrice over said them by heart backward and forward exactly in the same order they were set down And another time he did the same by ten Lines of Erasmus his Paraphrase in English the words of which being read sometimes confusedly without order and at other times in order by the Lord Keeper Bacon Mr. Jewel thinking a while on them presently repeated them again backward and forward in their right order and in the wrong just as they were read to him and he taught his Tutor Mr. Parkhurst the same Art THO his Memory were so great and so improved yet he would not intirely rely upon it but entered down into Common place Books whatever he thought he might afterwards have occasion to use which as the Author of his Life informs us were many in number and great in quantity being a vast Treasure of Learning and a rich Repository of Knowledge into which he had collected Sacred Profanne Poetick Philosophick and Divine Notes of all sorts and all these he had again reduced into a small piece or two which were a kind of General Indexes which he made use of at all times when he was to speak or write any thing which were drawn up in Characters for brevity and thereby so obscured that they were not of any use after his Death to any other person And besides these he ever kept Diaries in which he entered whatever he heard or saw that was remarkable which once a year he perused and out of them extracted what ever was more remarkable AND from hence it came to pass that whâ—â—â—eas Mr. Harding in that great Controversie they had abounded only in Words Bishop Jewel overwhelm'd him with a cloud of Witnesses and Citations out of the ancient Fathers Councils and Church Historians confirming every thing with so great a number of incontestableo Authorities that Mr. Harding durst never after pretend to a second perfect and full Answer but contented himself with snarling at some small pieces the truth is as Dr. Heylyn observes all the following Controversies were in this point beholding to the indefatigable Industry of this great Leader YET he was so careful in the use of his own Common place Books that when he was to write his Defence of
Religion as our Author tells us it was because he had no great occasions given him but what he thought of these men will best appear from the Sermon I mentioned above his words are these By whose name shall I call you I would I might call you Brethren But alas this heart of yours is not Brotherly I would I might call you Christians But alas you are no Christians I know not by what name I shall call you For if you were Brethren you would love as Brethren If you were Christians you would agree as Christians So that he could have no good opinion of those whom he every where in that Sermon stiles proud self-conceited disobedient and unquiet men who did not deserve the title of Brethren or Christians What would he have said if he had lived in our days BESIDES confuting some of the Seditious Doctrines of Thomas Carwright who became famous by his Admonition to the Parliament in the year following the Bishop said Stultitia nata est in corde pueri virga disciplinae fugabit illam Which shews he was no encourager of Faction by Lenity and Toleration tho he was a man of great moderation otherwise and expressed a great sense of the Frailties of Mankind in other Instances as appears by his Letter to Dr. Parkhurst when Bishop of Norwich Let your Chancellor saith he be harder but you easier let him wound but do you heal let him Lance do you Plaister wise Clemency will do more good than rigid severity one man may move more with an Engine than six with the force of their hands And accordingly he would often sit in his own Consistory with his Chancellor hearing considering and sometimes determining Causes concerning Matrimony Adultery and Testaments c. not thinking it safe to commit all to the sole care and sidelity of his Chancellor and Officials But tho as a Justice of Peace he often sate in the Courts of Quarter-Sessions yet judgment were desired concerning some scruple of Religion or some other such-like difficulty So exact was his care not to entangle himself with secular affairs and yet not to be wanting to his duty in any case THO he came to a Bishoprick miserably impoverished and wasted yet he found Means to exercise a prodigious Liberality and Hospitality For the first his great Expence in the building a fair Library for his Cathedral Church may be an instance which his Successor Dr. Gheast furnished with Books whose name is perpetuated together with the Memory of his Predecessor by this Inscription Haec Bibliotheca extructa est sumptibus R. P. ac D. D. JOHANNIS JEWELLI quondam Sarum Episcopi instructa vero libris à R. in Christo P. D. Edmundo Gheast olim ejusdem Ecclesiae Episcopo quorum memoria in Benedictione erit A. D. 1578. HIS Doors stood always open to the Poor and he would frequently send his charitable Reliefs to Prisoners nor did he confine his Bounty to English men only but was liberal to Foreigners and especially to those of Zâ—rick and the Friends of Peter Martyr BUT perceiving the great want of learned men in his times his greatest care was to have ever with him in his House half a dozen or more poor Lads which he brought up in Learning and took much delight to hear them dispute Points of Grammar-learning in Latin at his Table when he was at his Meal improving them and pleasing himself at the same time AND besides these he maintained in the University several young Students allowing them yearly Pensions and when ever they came to visit him rarely dismissed them without liberal Gâ—atuities Amongst these was the famous Mr. Richard Hooker his Country-man whose Parents being Poor must have been bound Apprentice to a Trade but for the Bounty of this good Bishop who allowed his Parents a yearly Pension towards his maintenance well near seven years before he was fit for the University and in the year 1567 appointed him to remove to Oxford and there to attend Dr. Cole then President of Corpus Christi Colledge who according to his Promise to the Bishop provided him a Tutor and a Clerks place in that Colledge which with a Contribution from his Uncle Mr. John Hooker and the continued Pension of his Patron the Bishop gave him a comfortable subsistence and in the last year of the Bishops Life Mr. Hooker making this his Patron a visit at his Palace the good Bishop made him and a Companion he had with him dine at his own Table with him which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his Mother and Friends whither he was then travelling a Foot The Bishop when he parted with him gave him good Counsel and his Blessing but forgot to give him Money which when the Bishop bethought himself of he sent a Servant to call him back again and then told him I sent for you Richard to lend you a Horse which hath carried me many a mile and I thank God with much ease And presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled many parts of Germany and then went on and said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford and I do now give you ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Blessing with it and beg the continuance of her Prayers for me And if you bring my Horse back to me I will give you ten more to carry you on foot to the College and so God bless you good Richard It was not long after this before this good Bishop died but before his death he had so effectually recommended Mr. Hooker to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Arch-bishop of York that about a year after he put his Son under the Tutelage of Mr. Hooker and was otherwise so liberal to him that he became one of the learnedest men of the Age and as Bishop Jewel soild the Papists so this Mr. Hooker in his Books of Ecclesiastical Polity gave the Dissenters such a fatal Defeat as they never yet could nor ever shall be able to recover from Nor was Mr. Hooker ungrateful but having occasion to mention his good Benefactor in that Piece he calls him Bishop Jewel the worthiest Divine that Christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years BUT to return to Bishop Jewel he had collected an excellent Library of Books of all sorts not excepting the most impertinent of the Popish Authors and here it was that he spent the greatest and the best part of his time rarely appearing abroad especially in a Morning till eight of the Clock so that till that time it was not easie to speak with him when commonly he eat some slight thing for the support
escaped the Hatred of Men and the apparent Dangers we have run into by our Departure from them It is not many months since Paul the IV. had some Monks of the Augustine Order in Prison at Rome and many Bishops and a vast number of pious Men for the sake of Religion he exercised his Tortures and his Racks and left nothing untried and at the last how many Adulterers how many Sodomites how many Fornicators how many Incestuous Men did he find amongst them Blessed be God tho we are not what we should be nor what we profess to be yet what ever we are if we be compared with these our very Lives and Innocency will easily confute all these Slanders For we excite the People not only by Books and Sermons but by Example and good Manners to all sorts of Virtues and good Works We teach that the Gospel is not anâ— Ostentation of Knowledge but a Law of Life and that as Tertullian expresseth it â— Christian should not speak great things but live them and that not the Hearers but the Doers of the Law shall be justified before God 8. To all these things they commonly add and amplifie it too with all manner of Reproaches that we are a turbulent sort of Men that we snatch the Scepters out of the Hands oâ— Princes arm the People against them subver their Judicatories and Courts of Justice and endeavour to reduce Monarchies to popular States or Common-wealths dissolve the Laws and retrench the Revenues of Princes and turâ— all things topsie turvy and that in short if wâ— had our Wills there should nothing continuâ— safe in the Governments of the World O how often have they by such Pretences incensed the Minds of Princes against us that so they might crush the Reformation in its first springing up and Princes might be possess'd with an Aversion for our Religion before they knew what it was and that Magistrates might entertain an Opinion that when ever they saw one of us they saw one of their Enemies 9. IT would have been a great Affliction to us to be thus hatefully accused of so great a Crime as Treason but that we know that Christ himself and his Apostles and an infinite number of other pious Christians have been made the Objects of publick Envy on the same Pretence for Christ tho he commanded to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesars yet he was accused of Sedition in that he was said to design a Change in the Government and to affect and intend a Kingdom and so they loudly charged him before the Tribunal of Pilate If thou lettest this man go say they thou art no Friend to Caesar And the Apostles altho they constantly taught that we ought to obey Magistrates and that every Soul should be subject to the Higher Powers and that not only for fear of Wrath and Punishment but also for Conscience sake yet they were said to stir up the People and to incite the Multitude to Rebellion Haman brought the Jews into the disfavour of Assucrus by representing them as a stubborn and rebellious People that despised the Edicts and Laws of Princes The wicked King Ahab charged Elijah the Prophet of God that he troubled Israel Amasias the Priest of Bethel accused Amos the Prophet of a Conspiracy before Jeroboam And behold saith he Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel and the Land is not able to bear all his Words In short Tertullian saith this was the general Accusation against all Christians in his times that they were Traitors Plotters and the common Enemies of Mankind And therefore if Truth which is still the same suffers the same Reproaches as it did formerly it may indeed seem troublesome and uneasie but it is not new or unusual 10. IT was easie forty years agon to fiâ— such Slanders upon the then rising and unknown Truth when the first Rays of it burst forth in the midst of so great a Darkness and few men had heard what Doctrines were taught When Martin Luther and Huldericus Zuinglius two excellent Persons who were given by God to enlighten the World began first to preach the Gospel when the Thing was new and the Event uncertain and the Minds of Men surprised and unsetled and their Ears open to all manner of Calumnies and it was not possible to invent thaâ— Defamation of us which would not be believed by the People even upon the Account of the Novelty and strangeness of the thing And so it was in the more ancienâ— times the first opposers of Christianity Symmachus Celsus Julianus and Porphyrius represented the Primitive Christians as a seditious and rebellious Sect before either Prince or People knew well what the Christians were or what they professed or what they would have But now when our Enemies may see and cannot deny that in all our Words and Writings we diligently admonish the People of their Duty that they should obey their Princes and Magistrates tho they are wicked men which is also confirm'd by Experience and seen and observed by all the World certainly I say it is now a senseless thing to attempt to make us odious by a parcel of superannuated over-worn Lyes when they have no new and fresh Crimes to lay to our Charge 11. WE bless our gracious God whose Cause this is that there hath yet been no Example of any Insurrection or Rebellion in any of those Countries Kingdoms or Common-wealths which have imbraced the Reformation We have not subverted any Monarchy we have not diminished anyâ—Princes Jurisdiction or Rights we have not troubled any Common-wealth The Kings of England Denmark and Sweden the Dukes of Saxony the Counts of the Palatinate the Marquesses of Brandenburgh the Lantgraves of Hessia the Common-wealths of the Switzars the free Cities of Strasbourgh Basil Frankfort Ulm Augsburg and Norimburg are all in the same State they were before the Reformation or rather because the People are now better instructed in the matters of Obedience to their Governours than they were before in a better State Let our Defamers go into those places where the Gospel is setled by the Blessing of God and then tell us where Princes have more Majesty Where there is less Pride and Tyranny Where are Princes treated with more Respect Where the People are less Tumultuous Where the Civil Government or Ecclesiastical was ever in greater Tranquillity 12. BUT you will say the Boors of Germany fell into Tumults and Insurrections upon the first preaching of this Doctrine Be it granted but then Martin Luther the first Divulger of it did with great vehemence and sharpness write against them and reduced them to their Allegiance and Duty 13. AND whereas some ignorant men have objected that the Switzars murthered Leopold the Arch-Duke of Austria and changing the State erected a Common-wealth and so freed their Country this was done as appears by all Histories above two hundred and sixty years since
tho we are silent they may be pleased to hear their own St. Bernard Those Bishops saith he to whom the Church of God is now committed are not Teachers but Seducers not Pastors but Impostors not Prelates but Pilates Thus St. Bernard wrote then of him that call'd himself the Great Pontiff and of the Bishops who then sate at the Helm He was no Heretick he was no Lutheran he never forsook their Church and yet he never stuck at calling those Bishops they then had Seducers Impostors Pilates And now when the People were openly seduced and Christians imposed upon and Pilate mounted the Tribunal and adjudged Christ and his Members to the Fire and Sword O good God! in what condition was the Church then And now of so many and such gross Errors what one Error have they reformed to this day yea what one Error have they at any time acknowledged and confessed 26. BUT now whereas they pretend to be in Possession of the whole Catholick Church and call us Hereticks because we do not agree with them Let us see what Mark that Church hath of the Church of God Nor is the Church of God very difficult to be found if you seriously and diligently seek for it for it is placed in an high and illustrious Place and built on the top of a Mountain and the Foundations of it are laid upon the Apostles and Prophets There saith St. Augustin let us seek the Church there let us try our Cause and in another place he saith the Church is to be shown cut of the sacred Scriptures and whatever Society cannot derive it self from them is not the Church And yet I know not whence it proceeds whether from Reverence or Conscience or a despair of Victory that these men always dread and shun the Word of God as much as a Thief does the Gallows and in truth it is no Wonder for as they say a Beetle is presently extinguished in Opobalsam altho it is a most fragrant Oyntment So they see their Cause is suffocated and ruined when ever it comes near the Scriptures which are a sort of deadly Poyson to it Therefore they accustom themselves to call the Holy Scriptures which our Saviour Jesus Christ did not only cite on all occasions but at the last sealed them with his Blood that they may drive the People from them as if they were dangerous and destructive with the greater facility these very Scriptures I say they call a cold uncertain unprofitable dumb killing dead Letter which seems to us to be the same thing as if they should wholly deny them to be the Word of God And besides all this they commonly add a no very proper Simile too They are say they a Nose of Wax and may be form'd and set all manner of ways and be made to serve all manner of Purposes Does the Pope not know that that these things are said by his Followers Does he not understand what kind of Patrons he has 27. LET the Pope then be pleased to hear how piously and how holily Hosius a certain Polander and a Bishop as he saith himself certainly an eloquent and not unlearned man and a sharp and violent defender of his Interest writes concerning the Scriptures I believe he will admire a pious man could possibly entertain such impious Thoughts or write so contemptuously of those very words which he knew proceeded from the Mouth of God and above all that he should seem to desire that it might not pass for his Sense alone but the common Opinion of the whole Popish Party We saith he have bid adieu to the Scriptures having seen so many not only different but contrary Interpretations given of them let us then rather hear God himself speak then apply our selves and trust our Salvation to those jejune Elements There is no need of being Skilful in the Law and Scriptures but of being taught by God That Labour is ill imployed that is bestowed on the Scriptures for the Scripture is a Creature and a poor kind of Element Thus far Hosius in his Book of the express Word of God in this place craftily under the Person of another Man tho he speaks the same thing in several other places in the same Book as his own Opinion without any disguise which is said with the same Spirit and Affection as the like things were heretofore by Montanus and Marcion who are reported frequently to have said when they contemptuously rejected the Holy Scriptures that they knew more and better things than either Christ or his Apostles ever knew What then shall I say on this Occasion O ye Pillars of Religion O ye Presidents of the Church of Christ is this the Reverence ye pay to the Word of God Do ye bid an Adieu to the Sacred Scriptures which St. Paul saith are divinely inspir'd which the Holy God hath illustrated by so many Miracles in which the certain Footsteps of Jesus Christ are imprinted which were cited as Testimonies by all the Holy Fathers by the Apostles by Christ himself the Son of God when occasion requir'd it do ye I say bid adieu to these as if they were not worthy of your regard that is do ye impose silence upon God who it is that speaks clearly to you in the Scriptures Or will you call that Word a poor and a dead Element by which only as St. Paul saith we are reconcil'd to God and which as the Prophet David saith is Holy and Pure and shall endure for ever Or will you say that all the Pains we spend in that which Christ commanded us to search diligently and to have ever in our Eye is lost and that Christ and the Apostles when they exhorted the People to a careful Perusal of the Scriptures that they might thereby abound in all Knowledge and Wisdom designed only to delude and abuse Men It is no wonder that these men despise us and our Writings who thus undervalue God himself and his Oracles but it was a most foolish Action to offer so great an Affront to the Word of God that they might do us a small mischief 28. AND now as if all this were too little they commit the Holy Scriptures to the Fire as the wicked King Jehojakim and as Antiochus and Maximinus two Heathen Persesecutors did calling them the Books of Hereticks and they seem altogether disposed to imitate Herod the Great in what he did for the establishing of his Power for he being an Idumaean of another Race and Blood then the Jews were and desiring to be thought a Jews that so he might the better settle that his Kingdom over them which he had obtained from Augustus Caesar he commanded all their Genealogies which they kept in their Publick Register and were carefully preserved from Abrahams times by which without any Error it was easie to find of which Tribe any person was descended to be burnt and abolished that there might be nothing to be found for the
qualified for the making of a Church of God for certainly they are neither lawful Abbots nor genuine Bishops But suppose they are the Church suppose they are to be heard in Councils and that they have the sole Right of Voting yet in ancient time when the Church of God was well governed especially if it be compared with their Church as St. Cyprian acquaints us the Presbyters and Deacons and some part also of the Laity were then call'd to assist at the hearing of Ecclesiastical Causes 4. BUT what now if those Abbots and Bishops know nothing What if they know not what Religion is nor what they ought to believe of God What if the Law hath perished from the Priests and Counsel from the Elders What if as Micah saith the Night be unto them instead of a Vision and Darkness instead of a Divination What if as Isaiah saith the Watchmen of the City are all blind they are all ignorant and what if the Salt as Christ saith hath lost its Force and Savour and is become good for nothing not fit even to be cast upon the Dunghil for they defer all to the Pope who cannot err but then this in the first place is ridiculous that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a Carrier from the Holy Council to Rome that if any Doubt or Stop happens which he cannot expedite he may take better Instruction and Counsel from I know not what more learned Spirit for if it must come to this at last what need is there that so many Bishops should with such great Expence be called from very distant places at this time to Trent It had certainly been more prudent and much better a shorter and an easier way to have at first turn'd over all this Business to the Pope and have gone directly to the Oracle of his sacred Brâ—ast besides it is unjust to devolve our Cause from so many Bishops and Abbots to the Judgment of any one man and above all others to the Judgment of the Pope who is accused by us of many very great Crimes and though he hath not answered for his own Misdemeanors yet hath presum'd to condemn us before we were call'd and that without any Tryal Now do we invent all this or is it not now the manner of our late Councils Are not all things referr'd to the Pope by the Council so that as if nothing were done by so many Sentences and Subscriptions he alone may add diminish abrogate approve relax and restrain whatsoever he please Whose Words are these Why did the Bishops and Abbots in the end of the late Council at Trent put in these words as a part of their Decree Saving in in all things the Authority of the Apostolical See Or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself as if saith he any Councils could prescribe a Law to the Church of Rome when all Councils are held by the Authority of the Church of Rome and derive their Force from it too and whereas they do patiently in their Decrees except the Authority of the Pope of Rome If they will confirm and approve these things why are Councils call'd but if they are indeed repeal'd and abrogated why are they still left in their Books as if they were in force 5. WELL but suppose in the next place that the Pope tho one is above all Councils that is that he is a part greater than the whole has more Power yea and more Wisdom too than all his Party besides and that in spite of St Jeroms Judgment the Authority of this one City is greater than that of the whole World What if he has seen none of these things and has neither read the holy Scriptures nor the ancient Fathers nor so much as any of his own Councils What if like Pope Liberius of old he becomes an Arrian or like Pope John who lived not many years since thinks very leudly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul and of the Life to come or as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice so he for the enlarging of his own Power should corrupt the other Councils and aver that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers in them which were never so much as thought off and that as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power What if he renounce the Christian Faith and becomes an Apostate as Lyranus saith many Popes have done What will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabbin of his Breast and obtrude such a Light upon him contrary to his Inclinations and against his Will that he shall not err though he would Or shall such a Pope as this be the Fountain of all Laws and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet Or if these things be not in him can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight Or if he be not qualified to judge of them does he yet desire that all these things should be refer'd to him alone What now if the Popes Advocates the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel and will not see what they do see but wrest the Scriptures and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ and cannot be applied to any other Mortal What if they say the Pope is all and above all or that he can do all those things which Christ can do or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with Christs or that the Pope is that Light which came into the World which Christ spake of himself only and that he that doth Evil hateth that Light and fleeth from it or that all other Bishops have received of his Fulness Or lastly what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the Word of God Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel Shall such as these be the Army God Will Christ be present with such Men Will the Spirit of God move upon their Tongues or may they say truly it seems good to the Holy Ghost and to us 6. Pâ—trus a Soto and his Voucher Hosius make no sâ—ruple to affirm that that very Council which condemn'd our Saviour to death had then the Spirit of Prophesie and Truth and the Holy Ghost with them and that what those High Priests said was not false or vain when they said 〈◊〉 have a Law and by that Law be ought to die that in this according to Hosius they gave a true Judgment and that their Decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of Death It is a wonder in